Yui Kanzaki’s problem was rather simple.
She arrived out of nowhere.
She caused destruction.
And then made herself feel right at ho.
No one really knows how long this took.
No one really knows how it happened.
But in a week.
Yui was a part of everyone’s daily routine.
This was, as you would expect, terrifying.
Dinner table evidence of this can be found any day.
Mina said we should eat as one group.
"Mina, let’s celebrate!"
"For what?"
Kuro replied.
With a big grin on her face.
"Because we survived Yui."
"That’s fair."
Minami quickly jumped in.
Yui looked really upset.
"I’m not that bad."
Everyone at the table responded imdiately.
After the five seconds of silence.
"You are."
Everyone said.
Yui felt like she was being attacked emotionally.
Sadly.
No one felt bad for her.
The restaurant was filled with people having fun.
Everywhere you looked there was light.
You could hear laughter.
The crowd was so loud.
That they made the restaurant feel warm inside.
No one had a test.
No one had a job.
No one had any responsibilities.
Everyone was at the restaurant just to eat.
This felt so normal.
Kuro was sitting towards the middle of the table.
Watching the chaos unfold.
As usual Akari was sitting opposite Yui.
The worst decision ever.
Because as soon as the food was served.
The war resud.
Akari yelled, "That’s MY shrimp!"
Yui promptly took her shrimp.
Yui exclaid, "That was your shrimp."
Akari scread, "THIEF!"
Yui mocked, "Math problems!"
Akari shouted, "STOP!"
Yui just laughed.
Akari seed ready to launch herself at Kuro across the table.
Kuro sighed.
At this mont in ti.
To have both Akari and Yui together made it feel as if there were two storms in the sa room.
What was even more frightening? They actually liked each other.
But neither would admit that.
Aoi was, anwhile, sitting quietly with her usual watching.
Her eyes occasionally drifted over in Yui’s direction, neither hostile nor friendly.
Just curious.
Yui was a hard person to read.
Most people have patterns of predictability; their behavior can generally be predicted; their goals can generally be predicted.
Yui is not like that.
Yui may be acting serious one second, and then acting ridiculous the next. Even now, Aoi couldn’t tell what Yui was thinking.
That made Yui dangerous.
Not because Yui was a bad person.
But because Yui was unpredictable.
Suddenly, Yui beca aware that Aoi was staring at her.
Their eyes locked.
Yui smiled.
Aoi returned the smile.
The silent battle continues.
Nobody understood this.
Kuro especially didn’t understand this.
And maybe it was better that way.
Close by, Rika was busy.
Very, very busy.
She had already filled several pages of her notebook.
"You’re still writing?" Mina said, looking over.
"Of course," Rika replied.
"About what?"
Rika pointed to Yui.
"Everything!"
Yui imdiately beca concerned.
"What do you an, ’everything’?"
"It ans that you’ve produced enough material for an entire plot arc."
There was a brief period of silence.
Yui’s chopsticks remained raised. She slowly lowered them.
It was the first ti during that entire night that Rika genuinely appeared to be worried about soone.
Kuro understood why Rika was worried, no one escaped from being soone’s muse once they’d been a muse for them.
Rika had a completely different look on her face than Mina did.
Mina looked extrely happy, and the reason for that happiness seed to be that she found the "new best friend" Rika, and in the short ti that they’d known each other they had already gone shopping together, exchanged hundreds of pictures, recomnded restaurants, and planned future outings together.
It was amazing. Or it was horrifying. Or maybe both. Yui raised her glass to toast friendship.
Mina raised her glass to toast shopping. Both groups of friends sounded sincere.
Minami looked like she was exhausted; not physically exhausted but rather exhausted ntally, emotionally, spiritually, from having to listen to Yui repeat all the horrible things she’d done throughout her life over the last week.
All the embarrassing things she’d done; all the mistakes she’d made; all the tis she’d failed.
Nothing that Yui experienced was safe. No experience was safe, even tonight.
Yui’s face lit up suddenly and she said
"Hey, rember that ti....?"
Minami interrupted her saying
"No." "You don’t even know what story I’m about to tell you."
"I don’t care."
The table erupted with laughter as Minami adapted. Barely made any detectable adaptation.
Minami’s instincts for survival increased exponentially. Yui looked disappointed.
It’s rare to see Yui look disappointed. "You are learning."
"I have no choice."
"Fair enough."
The group continues to have an ongoing conversation consisting of each other telling stories; jokes; argunts; and ti past surprisingly fast until the group talked about what they had learned over the past week.
Mina asked, "What have we all learned this week?"
Akari answered the question first. "Yui is very dangerous."
"That is absolutely correct." Yui agreed.
"I found out that I’m the older of us by so way"
Akari went on
"That’s how the age rule rolls"
"No"
Akari extended her arm
"You’re just in June"
The table burst apart.
Yui instantly said"
"I do not accept that."
"Too late"
"Minami"
"Don’t you bring into this."
"Soone help,"
"I won’t."
Yui’s help was given none
With justice
Aoi just sat back and drank.
"I, too, have learned sothing."
Everyone looked at her.
Because Aoi very rarely contributed information.
"What did you learn?"
Mina asked
Aoi turned to Yui.
Then smiled kind of.
"You’re hard to figure out."
Yui blinked
And then laughed.
"That’s the nicest thing that you have ever said to "
"It wasn’t necessarily a complint."
"Even better."
The silent war continued.
Rika raised her hand.
"I learned that Yui’s life story is like a better version of most romance novels."
"I don’t know whether I should feel good or bad about that."
"Both."
"Fair."
At long last.
Dinner ended.
People started getting ready to leave.
The temperature outside was warm.
Comfortably warm.
For a mont.
Everyone stood there together outside of the restaurant.
The group had changed.
Yui, who was an absolute stranger just 7 days ago,
Now feels like she is an integral part of the chaos.
Part of the family.
Which is kind of scary.
Still, nobody seed concerned...
Not even Kuro.
While everyone was finishing with their goodbyes,
Yui stayed for a mont longer.
A strange expression crossed her face.
Then she felt her phone vibrate.
One ssage.
One notification.
One email...
She opened it casually, and then froze...
Her smile was gone.
Her teasing was gone.
Everything was gone...
Yui Kanzaki had finally beco totally serious for the first ti since Kuro had t her.
The email contained only about three lines.
dical University Examining Board.
Final Eligibility Examination.
Last Chance Notification.
There was silence...
The sounds of the night faded.
The world had begun to feel quieter.
She stared at the screen for months,
Years,
Failures,
Attempts...
Every one of these had gotten her to this point.
One last test.
One last chance.
One last shot to be the doctor she had wanted to be for so long.
No jokes.
No excuses.
No more chances.
Only one opportunity.
A soft smile creased her face...
Not a teasing smile,
Not a playful smile,
Not a mischievous smile.
A smile of determination,
A smile of confidence,
A smile of reality.
She looked up to the sky.
And let out a small laugh so that no one would see her.
Not because it was funny,
But because she was so excited,
So scared,
And so ready.
After so many failures,
So many mistakes,
So many people,
She now only had one more chance to leave her mark on the world.
She hung up her phone.
A glimr of resolve shone through her expression and ultimately behind a grin.
Like, she was so much more serious.
"It appears ti has co."
Then it would be the first ti no one was going to observe Yui Kanzaki as the disaster.
Rather, they would be viewing the genius within.
Additional Scene: The Great Dessert Disaster
After everyone thought the al had co to a peaceful close.
Disaster struck again.
A waiter ca out with the restaurant’s special dessert.
An enormous parfait.
With all kinds of ice cream.
Chocolate.
Fruits.
And enough sugar to be a public hazard.
"This is our gift to your group," said the waiter.
Silence.
But then six hands moved at once.
"Mine"
Said Akari.
"No!"
Said Yui.
"Yes!"
Akari protested.
"No!"
Yui muttered angrily.
anwhile, Mina had already gotten 10 pictures.
Rika was taking notes.
Aoi was quietly calculating the best way to share it.
Minami looked exhausted.
Kuro blinked.
When he opened his eyes.
The parfait was half gone.
"How is that possible?"
"Natural ability,"
Yui replied.
"Thief!"
Akari says.
"Skill issue."
Yui counters.
"STOP SAYING THAT!"
The argunt escalated.
Three minutes later.
There was no parfait left.
No one knew who had eaten the most.
Except Minami.
Because she didn’t have a bite to eat.
She looked at the empty glass.
The others.
To the ceiling.
"I hate you guys."
The group instantly broke into laughter.
For no apparent reason.
Which only made Minami’s headache worse.
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